Life on an other planet And Various Travels

Chapter one

Life on another planet and various travels

''Okay, I've had enough of this place.''

This was the ritual phrase just before Ainsley moved to another part of the planet. This routine had been par for the last year.

Pack up, power up the gig, lift off, make a beeline to the next interesting point.

The only careful steps he took in looking for his next camp was to find a place with water, as free of bugs as possible and check if everything was alright with the ship in orbit.

There isn't a big difference between being utterly alone and being dead. Apparently, the people who had built the structures understood that concept because for some reason they had left engravings and drawings of themselves on almost all of their buildings and he had yet to find one that didn't depict a scene with at least two or three protagonist.

Every structure, dwelling or place Ainsley had visited was covered with murals depicting everyday life, he supposed but the meaning of which he couldn't start to fathom. These were exquisite and remarquable in more than one sense because of the perfection of the drawings and carvings and colours but also because, in a sense, he felt less alone surrounded by all these still people doing whatever it was they had been carved or drawn doing. You could actually walk in a street and not feel alone just by the fact of the carvings.

Most of the structures had an organic feel to them. The material didn't look like anything Ainsley had ever seen before. He had tried to chip a piece of it but to no avail. How had they managed to engrave it, he had no idea. All the buildings had the same off white beige colour as a background for the colours used on the carvings.